Yo, khukuriacs!
I took delivery of a DOTD YCS Karda and I thought I'd show some pics, explain the simple modifications that I did with the sheat and give my perspective on this knife.
Since I started hanging around on this forum and I've been taken with the looks of the YCS khukuri and it's appendages, the lovely kardas. Since I've decided to switch from stainless steel to carbon steel knifes as my main users (I somehow feel they get sharper and that the steel is easier to work with, for instance hammering out dings) and I really only have one "proper" belt knife besides of cheap moras so I had to get one of the "standalone" YCS kardas when the opportunity presented itself
This YCS Karda is precisely "11 long and weighs in at 12oz (330 grams) and made by Vim. A few strokes using the sandpaper/mouse strategy and then a little stropping brought the edge up to the usual "HI sharpness". The point of balance is exactly on the kami mark and the knife feels very lively in the hand. If you drop the grip down to the last (thickest) part of the handle between the thumb and index finger, the balance of course changes drastically and actually it doesn't chop bad for it's size and weight. Fit and finish was good, but the two slices of wood are not perfectly equal in size/thickness. Nothing you notice when holding it and quite frankly it feels great in the hand
The blade itself is pretty much perfect without discernable hammer marks. Some really, really powerfull wacks into dry, hard wood produced no marks or dents in the edge. I'm not going to etch this blade so I got no idea about hardening, it feels hardened all the way along the edge though, based on my experience sharpening it.
Such a nice, curvy shape!
I have a feeling the kamis don't know the term "nimble spine"
I sanded the handle a little bit, giving it smoother edges and removing the original treathment because it was somewhat rough. Later I treated it with several penetrating layers of turpentine heavy beeswax and then a couple of top coats of Liberon black bison "antique wax" - a wax with a high content of carnuba wax (smells incredibly nice) which is harder/stronger when dried and a much higher melting point than most other waxes meaning it wont get sticky in your hand. This still isn't as durable nor as potentally super shiny as a proper oil treatment, but it looks and feels ok, gives good protection against moisture and is very quick to apply (and reapply). In my climate and for my use this is perfectly adequate. The antique wax of dries completely in 15 minutes to an hour and you just polish it with a piece of soft cloth.
The sheat is a quite basic stacked leather one with a way too loose push button retainer thingy around the handle through the frog. I quickly removed it as it isn't really necessary and the knife draws quicker and easier without it. The frog is the weak point of this sheat, being made by low quality "papery" leather. The edges of the sheat where you can see the stacked leather haven't been treated in any way, thus are likely to "suck" water. Hence, I wanted to improve the frog and also do something to the sheat edges.
The edges I glued with quickdrying superglue, normal cyanoacrylate. I used a low viscosity variety, but this isn't required. I think pretty much any glue can be used for this purpose, I just choose cyanoacrylate because it's clear (not yellowish as epoxy) and dries very quickly, especially when you sprinkle it with baking soda. As soon as the glue was dry I sanded it to get it smoother, then applied more glue, let it dry and sanded it again. After 3-4 "layers" I did the final sanding and then polished it up on a drill with a polishing disc and some green compound. The end result is a clear, hard and glassy and durable finish that is easy to touch up whenever needed. The amount of "glassyness" can be improved with more layers of glue and carefull sanding. It also strengthens the sheat considerably and makes it stiff as the leather and glue forms a lamiate. It'll never fall apart, lest I'm not carefull and slice it with the knife. Well worth an hour or two of work.
The original frog cannot be removed without disassembling the sheat, and even then probably not without damage to the leather, something I did not want to do (lazy). So, I found a couple pieces of thin, good quality leather (from an old jacket actually) in my leather scraps bag, cut them to rough size and glued one piece to the inside of the frog covering the "bend". Another piece went on the outside of the from following it all the way. After some cutting, cursing and sanding the fit was more or less ok, albeit rough. I then did a similar treatment as I did to the edges of the sheat itself. I only did a couple layers of glue and some light sanding before a quick polish though. Don't look too pretty and certainly not as smooth as the sheat, but durability was my goal and I mainly wanted to get rid of any sharp edges caused by the hard glue.
Backside. The frog wasn't originally completely straight on, my glued leather just follows the old. My less than perfect leather cutting technique doesn't help either (damn hard to cut it when you can't lay it on a flat surface)
In this shot you can clearly see the much stronger frog and also the finish of the sheat edges. Pretty round and no sharp edges. I think the glassy laminate look is acceptable. I considered dying the edges first for a completely black look, but I decided it was just more hassle and not necessary on a user that'll get beaten about.
Final comments? Well, as soon as I held this knife in my hand I knew it'll be one of if not the main user standard belt knife of mine, perhaps for the rest of my life (I need to get my hands on an R-10 before I make the final decision ). It is virtually unbreakable and even the sheat will live for a long, long time now. Even if the sheat looks a little cheap perhaps, it rides very well on the hip and I find the frog has the perfect placement/height compared to the weight of the knife. The size and weight of the knife itself is near perfect, not too large to be impractical but heavy enough for solid wacks. It carries very easily and handles nimbly enough for fine work.
Thanks for reading!
Mac
I took delivery of a DOTD YCS Karda and I thought I'd show some pics, explain the simple modifications that I did with the sheat and give my perspective on this knife.
Since I started hanging around on this forum and I've been taken with the looks of the YCS khukuri and it's appendages, the lovely kardas. Since I've decided to switch from stainless steel to carbon steel knifes as my main users (I somehow feel they get sharper and that the steel is easier to work with, for instance hammering out dings) and I really only have one "proper" belt knife besides of cheap moras so I had to get one of the "standalone" YCS kardas when the opportunity presented itself
This YCS Karda is precisely "11 long and weighs in at 12oz (330 grams) and made by Vim. A few strokes using the sandpaper/mouse strategy and then a little stropping brought the edge up to the usual "HI sharpness". The point of balance is exactly on the kami mark and the knife feels very lively in the hand. If you drop the grip down to the last (thickest) part of the handle between the thumb and index finger, the balance of course changes drastically and actually it doesn't chop bad for it's size and weight. Fit and finish was good, but the two slices of wood are not perfectly equal in size/thickness. Nothing you notice when holding it and quite frankly it feels great in the hand
The blade itself is pretty much perfect without discernable hammer marks. Some really, really powerfull wacks into dry, hard wood produced no marks or dents in the edge. I'm not going to etch this blade so I got no idea about hardening, it feels hardened all the way along the edge though, based on my experience sharpening it. Such a nice, curvy shape!
I have a feeling the kamis don't know the term "nimble spine"
I sanded the handle a little bit, giving it smoother edges and removing the original treathment because it was somewhat rough. Later I treated it with several penetrating layers of turpentine heavy beeswax and then a couple of top coats of Liberon black bison "antique wax" - a wax with a high content of carnuba wax (smells incredibly nice) which is harder/stronger when dried and a much higher melting point than most other waxes meaning it wont get sticky in your hand. This still isn't as durable nor as potentally super shiny as a proper oil treatment, but it looks and feels ok, gives good protection against moisture and is very quick to apply (and reapply). In my climate and for my use this is perfectly adequate. The antique wax of dries completely in 15 minutes to an hour and you just polish it with a piece of soft cloth.
The sheat is a quite basic stacked leather one with a way too loose push button retainer thingy around the handle through the frog. I quickly removed it as it isn't really necessary and the knife draws quicker and easier without it. The frog is the weak point of this sheat, being made by low quality "papery" leather. The edges of the sheat where you can see the stacked leather haven't been treated in any way, thus are likely to "suck" water. Hence, I wanted to improve the frog and also do something to the sheat edges.
The edges I glued with quickdrying superglue, normal cyanoacrylate. I used a low viscosity variety, but this isn't required. I think pretty much any glue can be used for this purpose, I just choose cyanoacrylate because it's clear (not yellowish as epoxy) and dries very quickly, especially when you sprinkle it with baking soda. As soon as the glue was dry I sanded it to get it smoother, then applied more glue, let it dry and sanded it again. After 3-4 "layers" I did the final sanding and then polished it up on a drill with a polishing disc and some green compound. The end result is a clear, hard and glassy and durable finish that is easy to touch up whenever needed. The amount of "glassyness" can be improved with more layers of glue and carefull sanding. It also strengthens the sheat considerably and makes it stiff as the leather and glue forms a lamiate. It'll never fall apart, lest I'm not carefull and slice it with the knife. Well worth an hour or two of work.
The original frog cannot be removed without disassembling the sheat, and even then probably not without damage to the leather, something I did not want to do (lazy). So, I found a couple pieces of thin, good quality leather (from an old jacket actually) in my leather scraps bag, cut them to rough size and glued one piece to the inside of the frog covering the "bend". Another piece went on the outside of the from following it all the way. After some cutting, cursing and sanding the fit was more or less ok, albeit rough. I then did a similar treatment as I did to the edges of the sheat itself. I only did a couple layers of glue and some light sanding before a quick polish though. Don't look too pretty and certainly not as smooth as the sheat, but durability was my goal and I mainly wanted to get rid of any sharp edges caused by the hard glue.
Backside. The frog wasn't originally completely straight on, my glued leather just follows the old. My less than perfect leather cutting technique doesn't help either (damn hard to cut it when you can't lay it on a flat surface)
In this shot you can clearly see the much stronger frog and also the finish of the sheat edges. Pretty round and no sharp edges. I think the glassy laminate look is acceptable. I considered dying the edges first for a completely black look, but I decided it was just more hassle and not necessary on a user that'll get beaten about.
Final comments? Well, as soon as I held this knife in my hand I knew it'll be one of if not the main user standard belt knife of mine, perhaps for the rest of my life (I need to get my hands on an R-10 before I make the final decision
). It is virtually unbreakable and even the sheat will live for a long, long time now. Even if the sheat looks a little cheap perhaps, it rides very well on the hip and I find the frog has the perfect placement/height compared to the weight of the knife. The size and weight of the knife itself is near perfect, not too large to be impractical but heavy enough for solid wacks. It carries very easily and handles nimbly enough for fine work. Thanks for reading!
Mac
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. Thanks to you Mic I can now start gifting them away and in a year or so will be able to buy this pretty neat knife type :thumbup:.
